Who Will Listen To Me?

Tuesday, September 09, 2008, 12:33 a.m. – I woke from an intense DREAM: I was visiting a church (not one in real life) for awhile, but there was a lot of ingrown fighting and divisions in the church based upon the traditions of men. So, I finally decided to leave, but before I left, I decided to give them some closing remarks.

So, I gathered the people together and I began to preach to them about the true meaning of church. I believe the passage of scripture I read was I Corinthians 6:2:

Do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if you are to judge the world, are you not competent to judge trivial cases?

Two people came up to the microphone to read the scripture with me. The context of the passage of scripture was under a heading of Lawsuits among Believers: http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=I%20Corinthians%206;&version=31;

The pope or a priest was sitting in a room behind me in a priestly chair all by himself. There was an open curtain separating his room from where I was speaking passionately and with great authority. He was falling asleep, so I turned around and walked in his room and shouted to him the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Then, I turned back around to continue preaching to the people, but the crowd had dwindled. There were two children in the back of a car with the engine running and with the passenger door standing open. I had left the children, I believe, in the care of the pastor while I spoke to his congregation, but he deserted them.

The people now wanted to go about their business of doing church. I told them that is exactly what the church had become, “a business,” and that it bore little resemblance to the early church in the book of Acts, which I said is where we, as a church, needed to return. END

Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening. I read Jeremiah 6:10-30:

10 To whom can I speak and give warning?
Who will listen to me?
Their ears are closed
so they cannot hear.
The word of the LORD is offensive to them;
they find no pleasure in it.
11 But I am full of the wrath of the LORD,
and I cannot hold it in.
"Pour it out on the children in the street
and on the young men gathered together;
both husband and wife will be caught in it,
and the old, those weighed down with years.
12 Their houses will be turned over to others,
together with their fields and their wives,
when I stretch out my hand
against those who live in the land,"
declares the LORD.

13 "From the least to the greatest,
all are greedy for gain;
prophets and priests alike,
all practice deceit.
14 They dress the wound of my people
as though it were not serious.
'Peace, peace,' they say,
when there is no peace.
15 Are they ashamed of their loathsome conduct?
No, they have no shame at all;
they do not even know how to blush.
So they will fall among the fallen;
they will be brought down when I punish them,"
says the LORD.

16 This is what the LORD says:
"Stand at the crossroads and look;
ask for the ancient paths,
ask where the good way is, and walk in it,
and you will find rest for your souls.
But you said, 'We will not walk in it.'
17 I appointed watchmen over you and said,
'Listen to the sound of the trumpet!'
But you said, 'We will not listen.'
18 Therefore hear, O nations;
observe, O witnesses,
what will happen to them.

19 Hear, O earth:
I am bringing disaster on this people,
the fruit of their schemes,
because they have not listened to my words
and have rejected my law.
20 What do I care about incense from Sheba
or sweet calamus from a distant land?
Your burnt offerings are not acceptable;
your sacrifices do not please me."
21 Therefore this is what the LORD says:
"I will put obstacles before this people.
Fathers and sons alike will stumble over them;
neighbors and friends will perish."

22 This is what the LORD says:
"Look, an army is coming
from the land of the north;
a great nation is being stirred up
from the ends of the earth.
23 They are armed with bow and spear;
they are cruel and show no mercy.
They sound like the roaring sea
as they ride on their horses;
they come like men in battle formation
to attack you, O Daughter of Zion."
24 We have heard reports about them,
and our hands hang limp.
Anguish has gripped us,
pain like that of a woman in labor.
25 Do not go out to the fields
or walk on the roads,
for the enemy has a sword,
and there is terror on every side.
26 O my people, put on sackcloth
and roll in ashes;
mourn with bitter wailing
as for an only son,
for suddenly the destroyer
will come upon us.

27 "I have made you a tester of metals
and my people the ore,
that you may observe
and test their ways.
28 They are all hardened rebels,
going about to slander.
They are bronze and iron;
they all act corruptly.
29 The bellows blow fiercely
to burn away the lead with fire,
but the refining goes on in vain;
the wicked are not purged out.
30 They are called rejected silver,
because the LORD has rejected them."

This was in the news: Scientologists charged with fraud in France: source
Mon Sep 8, 2008 11:27am EDT
By Thierry Leveque

PARIS (Reuters) - A French judge has ordered two departments and seven prominent members of the Church of Scientology in France to stand trial on charges of organized fraud, a judicial source said on Monday…
http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSL820153620080908?feedType=RSS&feedName=worldNews&rpc=22&sp=true

And, this article: Ban on Political Endorsements by Pastors Targeted
By Peter Slevin
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, September 8, 2008; A03

CHICAGO -- Declaring that clergy have a constitutional right to endorse political candidates from their pulpits, the socially conservative Alliance Defense Fund is recruiting several dozen pastors to do just that on Sept. 28, in defiance of Internal Revenue Service rules… http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/07/AR2008090702460_pf.html